Editor’s Choice
Eclipse, by Richard North Patterson, $26. Patterson pens another compelling legal thriller, reminiscent of “Exile.” He once again brings a timely, controversial subject — America’s dependence on foreign oil — to the forefront in this troubling yet engrossing read. This novel draws on the actual case of writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was hanged by the Nigerian military in 1995 despite protests. Library Journal
FICTION
Land of Marvels, by Barry Unsworth, $226. Booker Prize-winning Unsworth (“The Ruby in Her Navel”) sets his intelligent and timely new book in Mesopotamia during the spring of 1914, just before the chaos of WWI. In elegantly modulated prose, Unsworth creates a tapestry of ambition and greed while foreshadowing the current conflict in the region. Publishers Weekly
Fidel’s Last Days, by Roland Merullo, $23. After two light comedies with spiritual overtones, Merullo mines far darker material to construct a powerful tale of modern-day, devastated Cuba and its all but indestructible dictator, Fidel Castro. Publishers Weekly
NONFICTION
Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating, by Mark Bittman, $25. Cookbook author Bittman (“How to Cook Everything”) offers this no-nonsense volume loaded with compelling information about how the food we eat is doing damage to the environment, what changes to make and why. Publishers Weekly
Losing Everything, by David Lozell Martin, $24. Novelist Martin (“Our American King”) charts a hard-bitten existence that spectacularly imploded. If the author can be held accountable in good measure for burning his adult life to the ground, his childhood was a different matter. Martin draws a circumstantially sympathetic portrait of his father, a complex, thwarted man given to horrific rages who visited fists, kickings and verbal hatred upon his son and more of the same to his mentally unstable wife. Kirkus
Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World, by Liaquat Ahamed, $32,95. If you think today’s economy is scary, check out the Jazz Age horrors chronicled in this financial history of the interwar years and the central bankers who blighted them. Fortunately, his protagonists’ high-wire efforts to stave off national bankruptcies furnish Ahamed with plenty of drama to highlight his engrossing analysis of the complexities of monetary policy. Publishers Weekly
PAPERBACKS
People of the Book, by Geraldine Brooks, $15. In her dazzling new novel, Brooks (“Year of Wonders,” “March”) allows both her native land and current events to play a larger role while still continuing to mine the historical material that speaks so ardently to her imagination. Publishers Weekly
A Place of My Own: The Architecture of Daydreams, by Michael Pollan, $16. Wanting to have a place of his own where he could think and write, Pollan decided to erect a small structure behind his house. He wanted to build his “dream hut” with his own hands, even though he had no carpentry skills or experience. Publishers Weekly
Madonna: Like An Icon, by Lucy O’Brien, $14.95. O’Brien masterfully weaves together material from her extensive research and interviews to create an engrossing study of Madonna — the performer and the woman, the girl from Michigan who achieved superstardom. Library Journal
COMING UP
Night Walker, by Heather Graham, $24.95. A murder investigation takes protagonists Jessy Sparhawk and Dillon Wolf from Las Vegas to a California ghost town. (April)
